Shape the future of production in life science industry

Be part of the fourth industrial revolution in life science production!

We at Bayer are fascinated with the rapid advancements in technology. Let's join our world-class production skills and your innovative ideas in robotics in this challenge to make an impact to the whole life science industry.

#1 Robotic Competition

Thanks to the 6 finalists who gave their best in an exciting event and congratulations to the winning Team LAIAL!

The challenge

Awards

Finalists

Jury Statement

The challenge

With the Grants4Tech robotic challenge, Bayer aims to strengthen the bond between the Lifescience industry and academic robotic research communities and enthusiasts. We aim for a complete new class of applications based on modern robotics.

The task: sampling of powder for quality control from a drum of incoming raw materials is done hundreds of times a day at each of our multiple sites worldwide. Solving this challenge will have a disruptive impact to future operations and robotic applications.

You are challenged to use robotic hardware and develop the software to open the drums and the inner bag. The step of filling the sample into the bottle is explicitly not core of the challenge but optional. Anyhow the more steps the robot executes successfully, the higher the ranking in the final.

Steps to fulfill

1. Open drum *

Bayer will provide you two different drum sizes. During the challenge presentation all steps will be fulfilled with one drum picked by Bayer.

Break the seal

Open the clamping ring *

Securely place the clamping ring aside *

Securely place the lid aside *

* These steps are mandatory

2. Open inner bag *

This step includes cutting the cable strap.

Cut the cable strap *

Place it aside *

Open the bag *

* These steps are mandatory

3. Take sample and place into sample holder

Take a spoon

Take a sample (minimum 20g)

Put the sample into the sampling container

Securely place the lid on the sampling container

Put the spoon and sample away

4. Close inner bag

Grab and close the bag

Attach a new cable strap to inner bag

Push down the closed inner bag

5. Close drum and attach new seal

Take lid

Put the lid on the drum

Replace the clamping ring on the drum

Apply a new seal

*Steps marked with an asterisk are mandatory

Flexibility of automation with respect to the size of the drum and the position of the inlets is explicit a relevant guiding criteria in all phases of the competition.

For more information about provided materials and other important questions have a look at our FAQs. To learn more about specific challenge conditons download our factsheet here:

Awards

And the winner is...

Six finalist teams from four countries developed real prototypes using cutting edge-technology and presented their technology at the CUBE Tech-Fair in Berlin to representatives from key industry leaders, startups and institutions.

The top three received an award of 40.000€, 20.000€ and 15.000€ respectively.A further 10.000 € was awarded to each three remaining finalists.

What's next?

Bayer will aim to implement the winning solutions in its facilities within a reasonable time. To achieve this target we think that the most effective way is through a partnership among University, third party solution providers and Bayer.

Team Franka

Jury Statement

The finalists not only impressed with their competence during the five days at the Cube Tech fair in Berlin. They also impressed with their engagement, ingenuity and tremendous effort to come up with a variety of ideas. They have shown us suitable solutions for the challenging task of opening and closing drums and showed us just how tricky opening bags can be. The teams pushed the edge of what is possible in robotics.

Kai-Uwe Vayhinger

Maria Luisa Binda

Industry partners

Partnering with industry technology suppliers in this competition is highly recommended, and we are proud to present you our collaborating partners published below. You can contact them directly. This list will be continuously updated with robotic manufacturers, suppliers of vision systems and specialists for gripper technology. We are also happy to share our extended network of contacts with you, feel free to contact us depending on your needs.

Yaskawa Europe GmbH

YASKAWA Electric is one of the world’s leading manufacturers in the fields of drive technology, industrial automation and robotics